Melissa Mathison
| birth_date = | birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | occupation = Screenwriter | yearsactive = 1979–2015 | spouse = | children = 2 | website = }} Melissa Marie Mathison (June 3, 1950 – November 4, 2015) was an American film and television screenwriter and an activist for Tibetan freedom. She was best known for writing the screenplays for the films The Black Stallion (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), the latter of which earned her the Saturn Award for Best Writing and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Mathison went on to write The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), based on Lynne Reid Banks' 1980 children's novel of the same name, and Kundun (1997), a biographical-drama film about the Dalai Lama. Her final film credit was The BFG (2016), which marked her third collaboration with director Steven Spielberg. Early years Mathison was born on June 3, 1950, in Los Angeles, one of five siblings. Her father, Richard Randolph Mathison, was the Los Angeles bureau chief of Newsweek. Her mother was Margaret Jean (née Kieffer) Mathison, a food writer and convenience-foods entrepreneur. After graduating from Providence High School in 1968, Mathison attended the University of California, Berkeley. Her family was friendly with Francis Ford Coppola, whose children were babysat by Mathison. Coppola offered her a job as his assistant on The Godfather Part II, an opportunity for which she left her studies at UC Berkeley. With Coppola’s encouragement, she wrote a script for The Black Stallion, adapted from the novel, that caught the attention of Steven Spielberg."Melissa Mathison: a masterful storyteller who brought ET to life", The Guardian, November 5, 2015. Screenwriting and production credits Mathison wrote the screenplay for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial in collaboration with Steven Spielberg. It was nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay. The screenplay was based on a story that Spielberg provided to Mathison during the filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg attributes the line "E.T. phone home" to Mathison. She collaborated again with Spielberg for The BFG, which was released in 2016. She also had film credits for The Escape Artist and The Indian in the Cupboard. Dalai Lama Mathison knew the Dalai Lama from 1990 when she wrote the script for Kundun, and she developed a lasting friendship with him from that time on. She continued to work as an activist for Tibetan freedom and was on the board of the International Campaign for Tibet.Melissa Mathison, A Conversation with the Dalai Lama, Rolling Stone, July 21, 2011 Personal life and death From 1983 to 2004, Mathison was married to Harrison Ford; they had two children together. She died on November 4, 2015, in Los Angeles, aged 65, from neuroendocrine cancer. ] Her final film, The BFG, was dedicated in her memory. Screenwriting filmography References External links * Category:1950 births Category:2015 deaths Category:Screenwriters from California Category:American women screenwriters Category:Tibet freedom activists Category:Writers from Los Angeles Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni Category:20th-century American writers Category:20th-century American women writers Category:21st-century American writers Category:21st-century American women writers Category:Deaths from cancer in California